Novice voltage stepper help

[Jonny Antrobus]

Hello all.

Glad to have found this community
I have a small workshop and help with community projects on solar, gray water systems etc as the 'green industry' in the UK seems to be very expensive.

I want to make a small panel using 4 x 4w 6 inch cells just to charge phones/mp3 players just for camping trips etc with a cigarette lighter socket.

I realize the panel will be putting out 2v and would like to ask help what I need to add to get it up to 12v.

I'm a novice so any advice would be very much appreciated.

[Dave Turpin]

Just don't use 4W cells. Get 1/4W cells and wire 25 in series. A lot easier and more efficient than trying to build a chopper.

[Jonny Antrobus]

Point taken

Many thanks

It was just an idea for a simple 1 day group workshop for people with limited ability to teach some basics and have something to take away at the end of the day without having to wire up 36 cells and encapsulate a whole panel.

[Dave Turpin]

You could build what you described and use it to recharge rechargeable 1.5v batteries.